diff --git a/src/core/config/env.ts b/src/core/config/env.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab970fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/core/config/env.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+import type { ZodSchema } from 'zod';
+
+export function loadEnv<T>(schema: ZodSchema<T>, source: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = process.env): T {
+  const result = schema.safeParse(source);
+  if (!result.success) {
+    throw new Error(`Invalid environment configuration: ${result.error.message}`);
+  }
+  return result.data;
+}
diff --git a/test/core/config/env.test.ts b/test/core/config/env.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..32a97cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/core/config/env.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { z } from 'zod';
+import { loadEnv } from '../../../src/core/config/env';
+
+describe('loadEnv', () => {
+  const schema = z.object({
+    FOO: z.string(),
+    COUNT: z.coerce.number().default(5),
+  });
+
+  it('parses matching env vars into a typed object', () => {
+    const result = loadEnv(schema, { FOO: 'bar', COUNT: '10' });
+    expect(result).toEqual({ FOO: 'bar', COUNT: 10 });
+  });
+
+  it('throws a descriptive error when required vars are missing', () => {
+    expect(() => loadEnv(schema, {})).toThrow(/Invalid environment configuration/);
+  });
+});